Today United States Marshal
Service (USMS) concluded Operation Guardian, a three-year, national initiative
specifically targeting the country's most dangerous noncompliant sex offenders.
Deputy Marshals and law enforcement partners have arrested 345 individuals who
had failed to register with state authorities as required by law.

Marshals worked with state
and local officials to identify specific non-registering fugitives based on
their danger to the public and prior convictions for sex offenses. As of today, USMS investigators have located 427 offenders of
444 sought (or 96 percent of those targeted), including 82 individuals found outside the United States. These individuals
represent more than 500 prior convictions for
sexual offenses.

"Since inception
of the Adam Walsh Act in 2006, the United States Marshals Service has taken the
lead to work in conjunction with federal, state, and local enforcement in
tracking non-compliant sex offenders across the country," said United States
Marshal Arthur Baylor. "Even though this
marks the conclusion of Operation Guardian we will continue to assist in state
and local law enforcement in tracking and arresting sex offenders that abscond
from registration."

The USMS assigns 129
criminal investigators to conduct sex offender, non-registrant investigations
on a full-time basis. Operation Guardian was a collaborative effort led by the
Marshals Service in cooperation with Interpol, the Diplomatic Security Service,
Customs and Border Protection, and the National Center for Missing and
Exploited Children.

Among
those arrested during Operation Guardian in Middle Alabama were:

Tracy Furr,
was arrested on December 22, 2010, in Del Rio, Tennessee. Furr was wanted out
of Crenshaw County, Alabama for failure to register as a sex offender since
2008. His original offense occurred in
2006, when he was charged and convicted of sexual abuse involving a thirteen year
old female. The United States Marshals Service in Montgomery developed
information that Furr had fled to Del Rio, Tennessee and currently was living
under the alias of Robert Furr. United
States Marshals in Eastern Tennessee conducted surveillance and spotted
Furr. He was immediately taken into
custody.

The
Behavioral Analysis Unit at the USMS National Sex Offender Targeting Center
worked with the investigators to identify information related to the fugitive
across a number of personal or social dimensions, including past sexual
offending behavior.

The National Center for
Missing and Exploited Children estimates more than 700,000 sex offenders reside
in the U.S. and that more than 100,000 are classified as noncompliant or
unregistered.

Since its inception in 2006,
the SOIB has planned and executed more than 900 sex offender compliance and
enforcement operations. During these
operations, the USMS partnered with more than 4,800 state and local law
enforcement agencies to conduct more than 150,000 compliance checks.